Cool.

I really like Heliboard but Jesus does it suck at autocorrect and detecting what key I meant to hit. Gboard is a thousand times more accurate in these respects and so I default to Heliboard but I’ll occasionally switch to gboard if I have a lot to type and Heli is just wasting my time.

Is that actually your name? As in, גדליה? Juuuuust curious.

I buy slightly older phone in Lots. I clean them, test them and then I change them over to a ROM that runs nicely. Then I sell them at a modest markup. I’ve sold about like twenty so far in the past year and I have about forty waiting to be finished. Due to chronic illnesses I have, I often have weeks during which I can’t make any progress.

I know there are plenty of enthusiasts who would like to run a smoother OS that doesn’t spy on them or waste sys resources on bloatware, but oftentimes those people are afraid to do their own hack for concern they’ll mess up. That’s basically my customer base and I’ve been very happy to help get these devices to folks who want this experience.

I like crDroid, ResurrectionRemix, BlissOS, Lineage, Havoc, /e/, Iodé, and like a dozen others such as generic AOSP based etc. There are like a hundred. I just discovered SuperiorOS I put onto a Moto X4. Superior is quite an apropos name, it’s really sweet!

Samsung and Motorola are a smooth process (provided not restricted due to carrier or because it’s a prepay). Some LG are very good as well, but too many are not accommodating and also lots of them crap out. I do like my G4. I have about thirty devices I use somewhat regularly for this or that.

There are plenty brands, though, that I’ve not yet tried out.

I suppose. Hey to each their own. I personally toy with the other ROMs a lot but I don’t yet have anything running a custom brew that accesses anything very secure etc.

That’s not the single solution. You can put dozens of ROMs on dozens of other devices. I buy older devices at cheap prices and put custom ROMs on them and then sell them. It’s fairly lucrative; more so as time goes on. Plenty of people want this kind of privacy but don’t have the skills or confidence to modify their devices. Motorola and Samsung the most by far, but also LG and various others occasionally.

I’m gonna stick to pre-owned devices with alternate ROMs like Lineage, Cyanogen, RR, Havoc, Bliss, cr, Viper, AOSP, KP, ISP, etc. or any of the other hundred brews. I don’t anticipate getting a phone that runs android and is not able to be modified EVER. Eventually if the time comes that the tech changed so vastly that they’re not usable anymore (like 3G now) by then hopefully there will be full Linux phones or some other varieties. Maybe many.

But the thing is the mainstream masses just don’t give a shit. Their rights and liberties have been getting chewed away at for decades and they just can’t seem to care. As long as they are entertained enough and the culture like ours - ie geek subculture / hacking community continues to be mocked and vilified, they’re certainly not gonna listen to us.

But what’s new about that? Nada.

We are forever going to remain a fringe community and I just accept that. When a family member has Alexa devices and I show them all the analytics and tests and records from all the various sources that provide empirical evidence of constant surveillance and spying and uploading of eavesdropped audio and the folks just go eh oh well eh yeah but ah useful eh I have nothing to hide ehhh urrrgh … I start to see them with sunken eye sockets and protruding brow ridges. They are the fools and the suckers and the sheep. They’re the ones who will line up to be implanted with a chip, they’re the ones who will pay to have their brains mapped and catalogued. You can’t cure fucking stupid. Meanwhile people like us will remain the fringe “undesirables” as long as our hearts beat.

I’ll take a look but I think I have everything set like that.

I was referring to when my typing is not perfect, how it handles deciding what I meant to type. So like if I wanted to type this sentence, my fingers might have hit si likr uf I wsntrd ti tyow tuos semtebcd, my fingerd night have git Whereas on my iPhone or android with gboard it will have corrected all of it perfectly, the Heliboard app gets maybe 20% of it properly corrected, if I’m lucky.

If I could have the privacy and customizable aspects of Heliboard with the accuracy of gboard, I’d be happy happy.

I don’t know what that means actually.

I like Heliboard except the autocorrect sucks balls. When I tried gboard - despite my reluctance - it was a pleasure. I really like Heliboard a lot but it’s infuriatingly bad when it comes to sensing what I meant to type.

I only ever use YouTube in a browser. I haven’t seen an ad since … oh I don’t know, since as long as I can remember. At least fifteen years.

Most people who “report” online are high school dropout level education.

Well it could just be part of the collective corporate alliance that will always do anything they can to make any kind of freedom cost more for everyone. GrapheneOS is taking your freedom and not feeding on the corporate-issued fodder, and well, they don’t like that. So this is just one more small difficulty added to that choice.

This kind of thing is only the beginning. It won’t be long before absolutely nothing will work on any freedom-oriented OS, software, hardware etc.

Some fires need to start, and soon.

Yeah I really wish they’d make it less ironic. I mean, to NEED google hardware is just a cosmic practical joke.

I’m not sure about Graphene specifically, but as long as there’s an established procedure documented, I’ve done like fifty installs of custom Recovery and various ROMs, such as Lineage, crDroid, Resurrection, Havoc, Cyanogen, AOSP, AOKP, ASPCA [:-)], WKRP [:-)], etc. and dozens of other less well-known ones, and I have not bricked one yet. So, as long as you don’t do anything blatantly foolish, should be ok.

I’ve said on a few occasions when this subject came up about them closing off the ability to install whatever you want - the only reason Android has been what it is until now is because they needed an “in” to compete against iOS and Windows. Gaining a foothold was the priority, but now that they’re huge they can do what they’ve always wanted, to follow Apple’s example of mandatory middle-man.

It’s sickening. What people need to do is only buy second-hand and use devices that can be ROM-ed. I have a couple dozen that I tinker with and test stuff on. I also buy older models, put custom ROMs and Recovery and then sell them at a small premium, but I digress.

There’s only one way to get what you want as a consumer: unite and don’t buy.

In the current age, antitrust laws don’t apply to major shareholders of the Corporation of America.

What’s odd is that for a very small portion of the users, this is incentive to actually logout! Less clutter? Yes please.

And let’s be realistic: if they’re not signed in - or if they even don’t have a Google account (because they live on the moon), then they’re just gonna follow the instructions and do what they’re told.